Northrop Grumman Corporation has received the Nunn-Perry Award from the Department of Defense

The award was given to the team of Northrop Grumman and Davidson Technologies Inc., a woman-owned small business providing engineering, technical and management solutions for defense, aerospace and commercial customers. The mentor-protege agreement was signed under the Missile Defense Agency's Joint National Integration Center Research Development Contract (JRDC). The first JRDC mentor-protege team, Northrop Grumman and Boecore, won a Nunn-Perry Award in 2008, the first for a team supporting the Missile Defense Agency.

"Our work under JRDC is diverse, complex and challenging and advancing our small business teammates enables them to become even more valuable to our team," said Dan Verwiel, vice president and general manager, missile defense and protective systems division, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. "The Nunn-Perry Award acknowledges the successes achieved through mentor-protege partnership and teamwork."

The DOD Mentor-Protege Program assists small businesses in successfully competing for prime contracts and subcontracts by partnering them with large companies. Successful mentor-protege agreements provide a winning relationship for the protege, the mentor and the DOD.

The Nunn-Perry Award is named in honor of retired U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who sponsored legislation to enact the Mentor-Protege Program in 1991, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. Nunn-Perry Awards are the highest honor companies can receive in the program.

The Mentor-Protege Program is managed as part of Northrop Grumman's Global Supplier Diversity Program, which is designed to expand subcontracting opportunities for all classes of small business concerns. Northrop Grumman is an active and committed participant in the DOD Mentor-Protege Program. The company has mentored more than 130 small businesses since 1992 and received 23 Nunn-Perry Awards, more than any other company in the program.